Denmark summons U.S. envoy over claims of interference in Greenland : NPR
File – A View of Houses in Nuuk, Greenland, Sunday June 22, 2025
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Copenhagen, Danmark – Denmark Minister of Foreign Affairs summoned the best American diplomat in the country for interviews after the main national broadcaster reported on Wednesday that at least three people with bonds with President Donald Trump carried out secret influence operations in Greenland.
In a long written statement, the US State Department confirmed that the deputy head of the mission in Copenhagen, Mark Stroh, had met Danish officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He refused to comment on “the actions of private American citizens in Greenland”.
“The United States government does not control or lead the actions of the private people,” he said.
The ministry said that Stroh had “a productive conversation and reaffirmed close ties among the Greenland government, the United States and Denmark”. He said the United States appreciates his relations with Denmark, an ally of NATO and Greenland and noted that Trump and his best collaborators had all said that they respected “the law of the people of Greenland to determine their own future”.
Mark Stroh, the best American diplomat in Denmark, arrives the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday August 27, 2025.
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“We continue to promote commitment and cooperation with Denmark and Greenland to support increased security and prosperity for our nations,” he said.
Stroh is the second American diplomat to be summoned by a European NATO ally this week while the Trump administration shakes its approach to foreign policy. France had called the American ambassador Charles Kushner to his Ministry of Foreign Affairs after having sent a letter to the French President Emmanuel Macron alleging that the country did not do enough to combat anti -Semitism.
Trump has repeatedly said that he was looking for his competence on Greenland, a vast semi-self-self-like territory in Denmark. He did not exclude military force to take control of the Arctic Island rich in minerals and located.
Denmark and Greenland said that the island was not for sale and condemned the American intelligence reports there.
The public broadcaster, Dr. said that the Danish government and the security sources that he did not name, as well as unidentified sources in Greenland and the United States, believes that at least three American nationals with links with Trump carried out secret influence operations on the territory.
One of these people would have compiled a list of Greenlanders adapted to the United States, collected from the names of people opposed to Trump and has highlighted the cases that could be used to launch Denmark in a bad day in the American media, the broadcaster reported. Two others tried to feed contacts with politicians, businessmen and residents, according to the report.
Dr. declared that its history was based on the information of a total of eight sources, which believe that the objective is to weaken relations with Denmark from Greenland. He said he had not been able to clarify if the Americans worked in their own initiative or under orders from someone else. He said he knew their names but chose not to publish them to protect his sources.
Mark Stroh, the best American diplomat in Denmark, arrives the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday August 27, 2025.
Thomas Traasdahl / Ritzau Scanpix Foto / AP
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The Associated Press could not independently confirm the report.
“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” said Danish Minister Lars Lars Lars Lars Lars Rasmussen in a statement. “It is therefore not surprising that we live external attempts to influence the future of the kingdom in the time to come.”
“Any attempted intervention in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable,” said Rasmussen.
Cooperation between the governments of Denmark and Greenland “is close and based on mutual trust,” he added.
The White House, like the United States Embassy in Copenhagen, would not comment on the substance of DR’s relationships that the Americans with ties with Trump carried out secret influence operations in Greenland. But an official of the White House, who was not authorized to comment on publicly and spoke only about the state of anonymity, minimized the concerns of Denmark and suggested that “the Danes need to calm down”.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said that it thought that “in particular in the current situation, Greenland is a target of influence of the campaigns of different kinds” which could aim to create divisions in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland.
He said that it “assesses that this could be done by exploiting existing or manufactured disagreements, for example in relation to well-known individual cases, or by promoting or amplifying certain points of view in Greenland concerning the Kingdom, the United States or other countries with a particular interest in Greenland”.
The service, known by its Acronym Danish Pet, has said that in recent years it has “continually strengthened” its efforts and its presence in Greenland in cooperation with the authorities there, and will continue to do so.
